Document Foundation joins OpenDoc Society

Amsterdam, January 12th, 2011 - OpenDoc Society, the global association that promotes best practices for office applications, today announced that The Document Foundation has become an organizational member. The Document Foundation joins other companies, Open Source communities, public sector organizations and not-for-profits that are already members organizations of OpenDoc Society, such as Cap Gemini, Google, IBM, CWI and the Netherlands Department of Defense. OpenDoc Society brings together individuals and organizations with a stake or interest in the openness and future of documents, to learn from each other and share knowledge and best practices about core technologies, available tools, policy issues, transition strategies, legal aspects and of course the latest innovations.

The Document Foundation promotes the development of LibreOffice, a free and Open Source office suite for personal and enterprise productivity, with strong ODF support. TDF is independent of any single vendor, but is supported by companies such as Novell, Red Hat, Canonical and Google, and by major free software projects. LibreOffice is attractive for developers because it promotes a fully Open Source development environment, based on a mature personal productivity platform, without requiring any copyright assignment from contributors.

"We are glad to become part of OpenDoc Society," says Italo Vignoli, a member of The Document Foundation's steering committee, "Because we feel that the association's work of promoting interoperability between ODF implementations and sharing knowledge about best practices, fits together well with the mission of The Document Foundation to provide a full-featured Open Source productivity tool with strong ODF support. Interoperability is something that we – as a community – have to work on together and, with its fostering of events such as ODF plugfests and tools like Officeshots.org, OpenDoc Society has been a driving factor in this area".

"The Document Foundation has ambitious plans and a strong community, and they are bringing more choice to the table for end users. The market for office applications is huge, and TDF is ready to claim its rightful part. TDF's strong commitment to the Open Document Format as the primary driver behind real-world interoperability is commendable, and we are very happy to welcome it as a member organization", says Michiel Leenaars, Vice-President of OpenDoc Society. "We look forward to its ideas and contributions."

About The Document Foundation

The Document Foundation has the mission of facilitating the evolution of the OOo Community into a new, open, independent, and meritocratic organization within the next few months. An independent Foundation is a better reflection of the values of our contributors, users and supporters, and will enable a more effective, efficient and transparent community. TDF will protect past investments by building on the achievements of the first decade, will encourage wide participation within the community, and will co-ordinate activity across the community.

About OpenDoc Society

OpenDoc Society brings together individuals and organizations with a stake or interest in the openness and future of documents, to learn from each other and share knowledge - about core technologies, available tools, policy issues, transition strategies, legal aspects and of course the latest innovations. Whether you are a developer, publisher, decision-taker, educator, vendor, IT manager, academic, writer or archivist, or simply an involved citizen, OpenDocSociety.org provides a bridge for you to meet interesting like-minded people, to learn from and to cooperate with. OpenDoc Society is supported by a significant number of organizations.

The OpenDoc Society is an initiative that was launched in 2007 by a number of individuals from various sectors of society, including science, education and research, software vendors, Open Source communities, the arts, and government. The OpenDoc Society wants to build local human networks of experts and stakeholders in ODF from all areas. It want to be a leading organization in spreading knowledge about open document formats, such as ODF and PDF, to society at large, through publications, workshops, masterclasses and tutorials for developers, decision-takers, end users and other stakeholders. It wants to foster and strengthen the ecosystem around open document formats – from enterprise content management, to assistive software for the visually impaired, to readers for cellphones and game consoles.

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